Our school has a prewritten lesson plan format. We have to list the objective, teacher’s directions, group practice, and independent practice. While this is good to get a basic lesson done, the UDL format is much more involved. It not only covers that main areas of a concept, but it also demonstrates how you have differentiated the lesson. Our school follows the concept of “inclusion”. This means that special education students are in the classroom with the normal student population. Many teachers are not certified special education and are not familiar with all the documentation that is required. By utilizing a UDL lesson you are documenting how you have changed the lesson for the different abilities of all students’. UDL lesson plans also provide much more detail in regard to what the students will be learning. This allows a teacher to keep better track of concepts taught and how they where taught. If benchmark test show students are low in certain TEKS, a teacher can review exactly how that TEK was taught and make appropriate changes. Overall I feel that a UDL lesson will make a teacher become much more effective and also increase student learning.
CAST’s UDL LESSON BUILDER
Lesson Overview
Title:
Conflict in the Middle East: Why should I be concerned?
Author:
Jason Mansfield
Subject:
World Geography
Grade Level(s):
9
Duration:
Two 90 Minute sessions
Subject Area:
Social Studies
Unit Description:
The unit was designed in UDL format to give students an understanding to middle eastern politics and how they can affect them. The unit involves group work along with the use of Technology to allow the students to take charge in their personal learning.
Lesson Description for Day:
Students will use the internet, blogs, games, music, and other resources to educate each other about how the Middle East affects them.
State Standards:
(5A) Analyze how a character or a place is related to its political, economic, social, and cultural characteristics. (5B) Analyze political, economic, social, and demographic data to determine the level of development and standard of living in nations. (8A) Explain the interrelationships among physical and human processes that shape the geographic characteristics of places such as connections among economic development, urbanization, population growth, and environmental change. (9A) Identify physical or human factors that constitute a region such as soils, climate, vegetation, language, trade network, river systems, and religion. (12C) Evaluate the geographic and economic impact of policies related to the use of resources such as regulations for water use or policies related to the development of natural resources. (14C) Explain the geographic factors that influence a nation’s power to control territory and that shape foreign policies and international political relations of various countries.
Goals
Unit Goals:
Students will learn how political events in other countries affect them.
Students will learn how to do research on a certain subject area and create an opinion as to how that affects them.
Lesson Goals:
Students will understand the United States relationship with the Middle East and how it relates to and affects them. Students will also learn to utilize technology tools to communicate, collaborate, and express information.
Methods
Anticipatory Set:
Students will hold a discussion as to what is currently happening in the Middle East and why it is of concern to them.
The following questions will be offered: 1. Why U.S. citizens should be concerned about what is happening in other countries? 2. How do you feel conflicts in other countries affect us? 3. What have you noticed is affecting us here that are a direct reflection of what is happening in the Middle East?
Introduce and Model New Knowledge:
Students will use a wiki to collaborate data. Students will also use various online resources to gain new insight and collaborate.
Provide Guided Practice:
Provided guided practice will include examples of successful collaboration wiki’s and blogs.
Provide Independent Practice:
Recognition: Students will be broken down into groups of 3-5. Groups will be chose by the teacher based on abilities and weaknesses. Each group will be given a specific task and/or area to focus on. Tasks will include but are not limited to:
1. Explaining the relationship between the United States and the specific countries in the Middle East. 2. How Middle Eastern governments treat their people. This will include laws, types of government, and religious influence in the government. 3. Why is there unrest in that area of the world? 4. How we can be affected by different occurrences that take place in the Middle East.
Strategic: This lesson will conclude with students presenting their information to the class in the form of power point presentations and various other forms of media.
Assessment
Formative/Ongoing Assessment:
Assessment will take place mainly through teacher observations. Students will be asked to take notes and sum up the lesson in the form of a short essay. Essays will be posted on student’s blogs.
Summative/End Of Lesson Assessment:
Final assessment will be based on a final Power Point presentation. During presentation students will take notes on each area presented. Then the group will reconvene and create a Power Point Presentation that will sum up all areas covered by the groups. Summary’s will be completed and presented the following day.
Materials
Computers with Web Access and Web 2.0 tools
Text to Talk and JAWS for the students
Web Sites:
Foxnews.com
Worldwithoutoil.org
CNN.com
USAToday.com
Google.com
Wikipedia.com (student’s must understand that this site offers peer authored work and some postings may not be accurate)
english.aljazeera.net/
Skype.com (for a possible interview with an individual with relations to the conflict zone)
Reflection:
Our school has a prewritten lesson plan format. We have to list the objective, teacher’s directions, group practice, and independent practice. While this is good to get a basic lesson done, the UDL format is much more involved. It not only covers that main areas of a concept, but it also demonstrates how you have differentiated the lesson. Our school follows the concept of “inclusion”. This means that special education students are in the classroom with the normal student population. Many teachers are not certified special education and are not familiar with all the documentation that is required. By utilizing a UDL lesson you are documenting how you have changed the lesson for the different abilities of all students’. UDL lesson plans also provide much more detail in regard to what the students will be learning. This allows a teacher to keep better track of concepts taught and how they where taught. If benchmark test show students are low in certain TEKS, a teacher can review exactly how that TEK was taught and make appropriate changes. Overall I feel that a UDL lesson will make a teacher become much more effective and also increase student learning.
CAST’s UDL LESSON BUILDER
Lesson Overview
(5B) Analyze political, economic, social, and demographic data to determine the level of development and standard of living in nations.
(8A) Explain the interrelationships among physical and human processes that shape the geographic characteristics of places such as connections among economic development, urbanization, population growth, and environmental change.
(9A) Identify physical or human factors that constitute a region such as soils, climate, vegetation, language, trade network, river systems, and religion.
(12C) Evaluate the geographic and economic impact of policies related to the use of resources such as regulations for water use or policies related to the development of natural resources.
(14C) Explain the geographic factors that influence a nation’s power to control territory and that shape foreign policies and international political relations of various countries.
Goals
Unit Goals:
Students will learn how political events in other countries affect them.
Students will learn how to do research on a certain subject area and create an opinion as to how that affects them.Methods
Anticipatory Set:
Students will hold a discussion as to what is currently happening in the Middle East and why it is of concern to them.
The following questions will be offered:1. Why U.S. citizens should be concerned about what is happening in other countries?
2. How do you feel conflicts in other countries affect us?
3. What have you noticed is affecting us here that are a direct reflection of what is happening in the Middle East?
Introduce and Model New Knowledge:
Students will use a wiki to collaborate data. Students will also use various online resources to gain new insight and collaborate.
Provide Guided Practice:
Provided guided practice will include examples of successful collaboration wiki’s and blogs.
Provide Independent Practice:
Recognition: Students will be broken down into groups of 3-5. Groups will be chose by the teacher based on abilities and weaknesses. Each group will be given a specific task and/or area to focus on. Tasks will include but are not limited to:
1. Explaining the relationship between the United States and the specific countries in the Middle East.2. How Middle Eastern governments treat their people. This will include laws, types of government, and religious influence in the government.
3. Why is there unrest in that area of the world?
4. How we can be affected by different occurrences that take place in the Middle East.
Strategic: This lesson will conclude with students presenting their information to the class in the form of power point presentations and various other forms of media.
Assessment
Materials
Foxnews.com
Worldwithoutoil.org
CNN.com
USAToday.com
Google.com
Wikipedia.com (student’s must understand that this site offers peer authored work and some postings may not be accurate)
english.aljazeera.net/
Skype.com (for a possible interview with an individual with relations to the conflict zone)